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Iraq flouting U.N. resolution: U.S.

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

Washington NOV. 19. Even as all eyes are on the first team of United Nations weapons inspectors in Baghdad, the United States continues to maintain that Iraqi firing at planes over the "no-fly'' zone is a violation of resolution 1441 and, therefore, could be seen as a "material breach''. But the position of the United States is not shared by any other member of the Security Council — Britain included — which have basically taken the position that there is nothing in resolution 1441 that links firing over the "no-fly'' zones to "material breach''. What is being stressed at the United Nations is that the focus of the last two months was on Iraqi disarmament, not on what was taking place over the "no-fly'' zones; and that it would be prudent to keep up the "zero tolerance'' pressure on the Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, only on the disarmament front. "The United States believes that firing upon our aircraft in the no-fly zone or British aircraft is a violation. It is a material breach'', the White House spokesman, Scott McClellan, argued going on to say that incidents over the no-fly zones are assessed and reviewed and Washington reserved the right to bring this aspect before the Security Council.

For the last several days, Iraq has been firing at British and American planes flying over the exclusion zones; and the aircraft have been responding by attacking sites on the ground. Iraq does not recognise the no-fly zones, which were set up unilaterally by the United States and others during the Gulf War to prevent the Iraqi leader from attacking the Kurds in the north. Later, the zone was expanded to include the south to protect Shiites Muslims. The United States is starting to ratchet up the rhetoric over the no-fly zones, based on its interpretation of paragraph 8 of resolution 1441 which says that Iraq cannot "take or threaten hostile acts'' against a United Nations member "seeking to uphold any Council resolution''. But every other Permanent Member of the Council has taken the position that paragraph 8 referred to any personnel that weapons inspectors might ask to help and not the no-fly zones.

Further, diplomats assumed that the U.S. and Britain — the two co-sponsors — had the same interpretation prior to the passage of the resolution.

The Iraqi violations on the no-fly zones and the response of the Bush administration is not expected to be the trigger for a full-fledged war.

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